Overview

This document provides the details of software functionality that is specific to the Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms. You can access the Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN functionality through Autonomous and Controller execution modes, respectively.

Information on Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms

The Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms are a series of cloud edge platforms that are

  • 5G-ready, cloud edge platforms designed for accelerated services

  • cloud edge platforms designed for accelerated services, multi-layer security

  • cloud-native agility, and edge intelligence to accelerate your journey to cloud.

These platforms are designed for medium-sized and large enterprise branch offices and support both Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN functionality.

Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms with Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software deliver Cisco secure, cloud-scale SD-WAN solution for the branch. The Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms are built for high performance and integrated SD-WAN Services along with flexibility to deliver security and networking services together from the cloud or on premises. The platform provides a higher WAN port density and the capability for a redundant power supply.

The Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms have a wide variety of interface options to choose from, ranging from lower and higher module density with backward compatibility to a variety of existing WAN, LAN, LTE, voice, and compute modules. Powered by Cisco IOS XE, fully programmable software architecture, and API support, these platforms can facilitate automation at scale to achieve zero-touch IT capability while migrating workloads to the cloud. They also come with Trustworthy Solutions 2.0 infrastructure, which secures the platforms against threats and vulnerabilities, provides integrity verification and remediation of threats.

The Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms are suited for medium-sized and large enterprise branch offices for high WAN IPsec performance with integrated SD-WAN services.

Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms target these use-cases:

  • Enterprise Branch office, Managed Service Provider CPE, Internet Gateway for Direct Internet Access (DIA), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cloud platform with SD-WAN

  • Next-generation Software Defined (SD) Branch routing platforms

The Autonomous mode is the default mode for the device and includes the Cisco IOS XE functionality. To access Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN functionality switch to the Controller mode. You can use the existing Plug and Play workflow to determine the mode of the device.

You can use the universalk9 image to deploy both Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN and Cisco IOS XE on Cisco IOS XE platforms. The Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3 helps in seamless upgrades of both the SD-WAN and non-SDWAN features and deployments.

Switch between controller and autonomous modes using Cisco CLI

Use the controller-mode command in Privileged EXEC mode to switch between controller and autonomous modes.

The controller-mode disable command switches the device to autonomous mode. 

Device# controller-mode disable

The controller-mode enable command switches the device to controller mode. 

Device# controller-mode enable

Note

When the device switches from autonomous to controller mode, the startup configuration and the NVRAM information (including certificates) are erased. This action is equivalent to a write erase.

When the device mode is switched from controller to autonomous, all Yang-based configuration is preserved and can be reused if you switch back to controller mode. If you want to switch the mode from controller to autonomous, ensure that the device configuration is set to auto-boot.

Switch between controller and autonomous modes using bootstrap configuration files

On a device that already runs a Cisco IOS XE non SD-WAN image, after installing Cisco IOS XE Release 17.3.2 or later image, the device boots up in autonomous mode.

On a device that already runs a Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN image, after installing Cisco IOS XE Release17.3.1r or later image, the device boots up in controller mode.

To switch modes, use the controller-mode enable command to switch from autonomous to controller mode and controller-mode disable command to switch from controller mode to autonomous mode. After the device boots up, the configuration present in the configuration file is applied.

After the device boots up in controller mode, the configuration present in the configuration file is applied.

For more information on how to use a single universalk9 image to deploy Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN and Cisco IOS XE functionality on all the supported devices, see the Install and Deploy Cisco IOS XE and Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Functionality on Edge Platforms guide.

These are the Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms models:

  • C8300-2N2S-4T2X

  • C8300-2N2S-6T

  • C8300-1N1S-4T2X

  • C8300-1N1S-6T

  • C8200-1N-4T

  • C8200L-1N-4T

Supported modules and features on Cisco 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms

This table provides the supported modules and features on Cisco Catalyst 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platforms.

Table 1. Supported Modules and Features on Cisco 8300 and 8200 Series Edge Platformsup table title

Features

Cisco 8300

Cisco 8200

Cisco 8200L

Service Plane Applications (UTD, AppQoE, and TcpOpt)

Yes

No

No

CPU Core

8 Core

C8300-2N2S-4T2X supports 12 Core

8 Core

4 Core

CPU Memory

8 G

8 G

4 G

Backplane Support

10 G

10 G

1 G